You finally did it. After years of hard work, you’re able to afford the Florida vacation home you dreamed about during all of those long snowy months back home.
But what about maintaining your place when you’re not there? You’ve got to consider who will look after it while you’re gone. The good news is that in this day and age, there are a lot of options for maintaining your second home, and they come in any variety of price ranges.
Here are three things to know about how to address the risks that come with being a snowbird
Numerous platforms offer help in finding someone to lease your home.
In the chance that you’re less worried about risk and also interested in your second home making a little extra money for you, there are any number of platforms to help you find someone who would pay you to lease your home. A word of caution, however, if tenants are staying longer than four weeks, you will likely need to look into supplemental insurance coverage.
Electronic home monitoring can help keep your second place protected.
These days, electronics can do just about anything. Now, the tech-savvy snowbird can entrust an electronic home monitoring service with watching over the beach house. Just like any of the other options, there are risks (what if someone breaks the cameras? What if the service can’t get there in time?), but the advantage here is the smaller price tag. While you wouldn’t be making money, like you would if you were to lease the property, you also wouldn’t have to worry about someone getting a little too comfortable in your home.
Concierge services offer a variety of options.
Though a home monitoring service poses the least amount of risk (many of them have insurance if something goes wrong), they come with a higher price tag as well. However, this is the option with the most “bells and whistles.” Many concierge services come with a variety of options and packages. Some services offer everything from someone to check on the house, to someone who will stock the fridge for when you return and pick you up at the airport too!
Picking an option that works for you
Nothing ruins a vacation like entering your vacation home to find some disaster happened while you were away. So, while the process of determining which option will work best for you can seem daunting, the benefit is well worth it when it comes to maintaining your vacation home.
